Free Access to Legal Information from Africa

Mariya Badeva-BrightProject Director, AfricanLII

Free and Open Access to Law in Africa• Sometimes non-existent, often sporadic,

rarely complete• Lack of access:

o disempowers the citizens, as they do not have access to the very laws they are meant to abide by

o frustrates legal research, hence negatively affecting the work of private, public and NGO lawyers, government officials, judges, law reform practitioners, academics and students of the law,

o impedes foreign and local investment and economic development as investors prefer investment destinations that have open, effective and transparent legal systems that for example, enforce contracts and secure property rights, and

o defeats transparency in judicial and government business.

Real cases• Adjudication is compromised and diminished in

the absence of credible law reporting, and could jeopardize the credibility of dispensation of justice

• Human rights remain unrealized• Misinformed media and public• Exposing practices that threaten the

independence of judges and judicial processes• Enabling civil society and public participation in

the work of the Judiciary and Parliament (and further downstream in government).

African Legal Information Institute• AfricanLII is an umbrella organization,

aiming to entrench free access to law on a national level across Southern Africa and the rest of the continent

• Contextualizing global standards set by the international Free Access to Law Movement

• Partners and assists LIIs in Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, the Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Montreal Declaration on Free Access to Law, 2002• Public legal information from all countries and

international institutions is part of the common heritage of humanity. Maximising access to this information promotes justice and the rule of law;

• Public legal information is digital common property and should be accessible to all on a non-profit basis and free of charge;

• Organisations such as legal information institutes have the right to publish public legal information and the government bodies that create or control that information should provide access to it so that it can be published by other parties.

Successes• Tens of thousands of documents of

judgments and legislation openly published and available via the Internet

• Standards adopted to ensure comprehensiveness and completeness of access

• Partnerships between justice sector stakeholders nationally and regionally

• Regional statement of support for free access to law

Challenenges• Technical: facilitating maximal access

• Strategic: ensuring sustainabilityo sustained maintenance of the collectionso organizational sustainabilityo financial sustainabilityo widespread acceptance of the norm of free (and

open) access to law

Access to Legislation• Sometimes non-existent, sporadic, rarely

complete• If available: expensive to produce, maintain

and access • Distribution often constrained by regulated

reproduction and rules on authority, but more often by lack of funds to compile and maintain

Summary• Access provided by private (commercial or

non-profit) entities• Authorities do not always have the resources

to provide up-to-date and comprehensive access to legislation

• Cost-recovery requirement for Government stifles production and dissemination

• Free access is not always open

Principles of Access to Legislation (Cormacain)• All Acts are published simultaneously on the Internet and in print as

soon as possible after Royal Assent. It is important to ensure that an accurate approved text is published and that all users have access at the same time to the same text. (UK House of Commons, Legislative Standards)

• Accessible legislation principles:o Availability of law as enactedo Availability of law as amendedo Law at a point in timeo Legislation in contexto Findability

Kenya Law 4 years ago

Kenya Law Today

The Kenya Model• Comprehensive, updated collection of the law• Funded by government• Available as public domain (the raw text), and

Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (metadata and value-adds)

• Costs a lot to produce legislation

Replication?• Work with government (authority) to build

capacity for providing basic digital access to law

• Positioned as an essential public (at least partially) government funded service

• Build value added free law services for the profession and public, sustained by a non-profit business model (create spaces for users to contribute financially or in-kind, web monetization strategies, etc.)

Role of Libraries• Partnerships with

o Government Publications Department of the University of Cape Town Library

o Institutional libraries – Constitutional court of South Africa, Parliamentary library of Malawi, etc.

• Ideas?

Conclusion• Thank you!